The objective of this application is to prepare a book of interconnected essays analyzing various aspects of the genesis, developments, roles, and significance of bioethics in the United States. The book will be based on research conducted from summer 1997 through fall 1999, supported by the National Science Foundation and the Greenwall Foundation, which includes in-depth interviews with prominent bioethicists and the analysis of primary source documents and published literature. The book also will draw on work that the Principal Investigator, Dr. Swazey, and the Senior Scholar, Dr. Fox, have done since the 1960s as participants in and observers/analysts of various areas of bioethics. Among the topics that will be addressed in the book are the chief intellectual and professional disciplines that have been centrally involved in the development and ethos of bioethics, the ways of thinking and the value complexes they represent, and the points of convergence and tension between them. These disciplines include medicine, philosophy, religion, law, and the social sciences. Second, the investigators will examine the organizational development and progressive institutionalization of bioethics. A third major focus is the way that and reasons for which bioethics has increasingly pervaded public and policy domains. Fourth, they will consider how the issues deliberated by bioethics can provide insight into larger questions of value, belief, and meaning in America's pluralistic society and culture. Another major purpose of the book will be to provide a conceptual and analytic framework and research leads for further studies of bioethics.